To show the Structure of Striated Muscle.—Boil a tough piece of beef, as a cut from the neck, until the connective tissue has thoroughly softened. Then with some pointed instrument, separate the main piece into its fiber bundles and these in turn into their smallest divisions. The smallest divisions obtainable are the muscle cells or fibers.
To show Striated Fibers.—Place a small muscle from the leg of a frog in a fifty-per-cent solution of alcohol and leave it there for half a day or longer. Then cover with water on a glass slide, and with a couple of fine needles tease out the small muscle threads. Protect with a cover glass and examine with a microscope, first with a low and then with a high power. The striations, sarcolemma, and sometimes the nuclei and nerve plates, may be distinguished in such a preparation.
To show Non-striated Cells.—Place a clean section of the small intestine of a cat in a mixture of one part of nitric acid and four parts of water and leave for four or five hours. Thoroughly wash out the acid with water and separate the muscular layer from the mucous membrane. Cover a small portion of the muscle with water on a glass slide and tease out, with needles, until it is as finely divided as possible. Examine with a microscope, first with a low and then with a high power. The cells appear as very fine, spindle-shaped bodies.
To illustrate Muscular Stimulus and Contraction.—Separate the muscles at the back of the thigh of a frog which has just been killed and draw the large sciatic nerve to the surface. Cut this as high up as possible and, with a sharp knife and a small pair of scissors, dissect it[pg 262] out to the knee. Now cut out entirely the large muscle of the calf of the leg (the gastrocnemius), but leave attached to it the nerve, the lower tendon, and the bones of the knee. Mount on an upright support, as shown in Fig. 120, and fasten the tendon to a lever below by a thread or small wire hook:
Fig. 120—Apparatus for demonstrating properties of muscles.
1. Lay the nerve over the ends of the wires from a small battery which are attached to the support at A, and arrange a second break in the circuit at B. At this place the battery circuit is made and broken either by a telegraph key or by simply touching and separating the wires. Note that the muscle gives a single contraction, or twitch, both when the current is made and when it is broken.
2. Remove the current and pinch the end of the nerve, noting the result. With very fine wires, connect the battery directly to the ends of the muscle. Stimulate by making and breaking the current as before. In this experiment the muscle cells are stimulated by the direct action of the current and not by the current acting on the nerve.
3. With the wires attached to either the muscle or the nerve, make and break the current in rapid succession. This causes the muscle to enter into a second contraction before it has relaxed from the first, and if the shocks follow in rapid succession, to continue in the contracted state. This condition, which represents the method of contraction of the muscles in the body, is called tetanus.
NOTE.—In these experiments a twitching of the muscle is frequently observed when no stimulus is being applied. This is due to the drying out of the nerve and is prevented by keeping it wet with a physiological salt solution. (See footnote, page 38.)